Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

Do you think he has an attitude?@  Asked the pigtailed young lady of Ms. Clarke=s third grade class, speaking of the president, George W. Bush.  That was the kinder of the questions peppered at me on a recent visit to P.S. 305.  ADo you think he=s crazy?@ ADo you think he=s stupid?@  ADo you think he=s a cowboy?@  It seemed that these third graders were trying to reconcile what they have been taught about this country with its preemptive rush to war.
The myth perpetuated is of President Bush wearing the cowboy=s mantle from the American West.  A land of  men with true grit and souls of gold.  Maybe a little quick on the draw and with too much swagger, but the kind of guys you=d want on your side of the circled wagon.  Appearing on Meet the Press, Vice President Dick Cheney said the cowboy is exactly what=s needed at a time like this, a straight shooter to coming to clean up the town..  
But the cowboy ethic isn=t what=s driving American foreign policy today, this leadership is coming from a darker place.  What is coming to the forefront is what Native-American people have known since 1492, and what African people have been pointing out since being captured and brought here.   AThat=s that white boy.  He does anything he wants.@   And now he=s doing it on the world stage and people around the world are outraged at the sheer arrogance of the behavior and how little regard there is for human life. 
But this is not untypical behavior at all.  As professor William Mackey=s aunt_______ used to tell him, AThe buckra ain=t got no shame.@  The problem now is that this shameless behavior is terrorizing people worldwide.  People use sentences that include phrases like, Aa nuclear distance from New York@, Abiological attacks@ or AThey=re picking up Pakistanis.@ 
With Armageddon or a fascist state at the front door, there still may be time to look at Athe buckra@ before it=s too late.  Of course there are many wonderful ingredients in the American melting pot, but in order to understand the kind of people who have re-captured the power to run this country, and to fully grasp the danger the world is in, we find there are others that live under a uniquely American rock.
We=ve featured many articles about slavery and its boon for the American economy and the effects on African-Americans, but never much about the master.  While slavery is portrayed as the South=s Apeculiar institution@, peculiar also and little spoken of, were the masters of chattel slaves.  After all, these are the people who elected the presidents and provided the economic engine that built this country and charted its course.  These are the people it once took a civil war to get rid of.  
In his 1934 masterwork, Black Reconstruction,  1860-1880, legendary historian W.E.B. DuBoise tells us about this class of men and how they view the world.  Though writing in 1934, we can see that the current administration=s budget of  tax cuts for the rich and less and less money for schools, libraries and health care, would win nods of approval from the master-mentality of the mid-1800=s.  And to have come to power by taking votes away from black people would be the final satisfaction, proving the old ways work best. 
We hope by shedding light on the nastier side of the American character, we can get a better understanding of the kind of people wielding presidential power in the United States today and ask how are we going to adjust their attitude before they leave us poor, sick, ignorant and scared.

by David Mark Greaves

There Is A Drama Behind The Drama
For two weeks only, South African actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona will perform The Island at the Brooklyn Academy of Music=s (BAM) Harvey Theater. Thirty years ago they wrote this playCalong with Athol FugardCabout the South African maximum security prison on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and many others were sentenced to life for speaking out against apartheid.
Ever since the play was written in 1973, it has always been these two gentlemen who have performed it, at times resulting in their arrest and imprisonment. After three decades, Kani and Ntshona have decided they have done the roles long enough and will allow a new generation of actors to do the play.
    Kani spoke with Our Time Press from his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he is director of the Market Theatre and chairman of South Africa=s National Arts Council. AActors have performed the show around the globe, but every time they perform it in South Africa, they are compared to Ntshona and myself. We are ready to pass the roles on, so the press can stop comparing these young actors to us,@ Kani said.  
The play is a drama which looks at the hard lives of the prisoners and at them preparing to do the play Antigone, a classic production about resistance.  In addition to the drama onstage, there was an equal drama occurring behind the scenes, when the play was first performed in South Africa and for many years following. AWe wanted to do a work that depicted the prison where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for life. It was a fitting tribute to him and the other men there. People were forbidden to talk about Robben Island. The government wanted us to forget Mandela. The play was a way of keeping his name alive and the names of the other prisoners, so that we would never forget about them. The script took 14 days to create and perform.
You couldn=t produce a text that could be used in a court of law against you.
We kept the story in our heads and improvised,@ Kani recalled.
The play had its share of great success, and from 1973 to =75 Kani and Ntshona performed it in England, in the United States in Connecticut and eventually on Broadway, where Kani and Ntshona shared the first-ever dual Tony Award for acting. In 1976, they performed it in South Africa, only to be arrested and placed in solitary confinement for 15 days until protests from Broadway and Hollywood celebrities like Vanessa Redgrave and Sidney Poitier and massive demonstrations in New York, Paris and around the world got them released.
The script, according to Kani, is based on stories from people who had been on Robben Island. Kani=s own brother was there for five years. AIf you were really involved in the struggle (against Apartheid) you were underground in the community, in exile, dead or on Robben Island,@ Kani said proudly.
While throughout the world performances of The Island were done in theaters, in its homeland, it could only be done for private audiences. AThe Right of Assemblage Act forbid the gathering of two or three people under a roof. We would do the play for invited audiences, charge no admission and have no review. Many times the play was performed at universities as study material or in church halls. If the police came we could change the evening into a prayer meeting. It was wonderful,@ he said. AWe took the risk every night knowing we may not go home tonight, we could be arrested,@ added Kani.
When Apartheid ended, Nelson Mandela met Kani and said he wanted to see the play in 1995. AWinston and I put it together in three weeks and did it for Mandela, his entire cabinet and over 120 former Robben Island inmates. It took on another meaning that night. It was about the indestructibility of the human spirit. That night we experienced the longest standing ovation ever in my entire history as an actor,@ he recalled.
In 1999, director Peter Brooks saw the production in South Africa and brought the actors to Paris to perform the show, but first it went through massive changes. AIt was the most challenging 12 days of our lives. He took the play apart and made us re-create it. He had us search into the emotional reasons why we put it together 26 years before. Now that South Africa was a democracy, Antigone became the central issue of the play. It lifted the play from its confines in South Africa and it became a play speaking for people anywhere they are denied the right of self-expression,@ Kani said.    Discussing the message of the play, Kani stated, Ayou can survive anything if you hold on to your dignity.@
Kani and Ntshona have been performing the play for three decades, but their friendship goes back further than that. High school friends, they have known each other for 42 years. AWe share a chemistry, understanding and respect for each other,@ Kani said.

Looking at The Island and other productions that Kani mounts as director of the Market Theater in Johannesburg, he sees how the themes changed since the ending of apartheid. AOur theater has always been relevant, concerning the issues of the day. It told stories of our people under apartheid, gender discrimination, and child abuse. Today, South Africa is an emerging new nation, building a new people and society and that is the work emerging from young and established writers. The majority of the work talks about reconciliation and healing the nation,@ Kani said.
    The actor/director/playwright currently has a production playing in South Africa called Nothing But The Truth about reconciliation, which began performance in July 2002 and is currently touring South Africa.    Kani has been acting since 1965 and expressed its importance. AIt is the opportunity to communicate, be historian of our culture, continuing the oral traditions of our heritage. It=s a  means to inform and educate our people,@ he said.
In 2001, Joe Mellilo, executive producer from BAM, invited Kani, Ntshona and Fugard to put on the production in 2003. Kani was thrilled by the invitation. To say to the Americans >Lest We Forget=, if audiences can take that lesson our visit would be a success,@ Kani said.
Kani states that audiences will laugh, shed tears and feel their spirits lifted by The Island. The play will only run for twelve performances from April 1-6, 8-11, 12-13. To purchase tickets call BAM ticket services at 718-636-4100.

For two weeks only, South African actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona will perform, The Island at the Brooklyn Academy of Music=s (BAM) Harvey Theater. Thirty years ago they wrote this playCalong with Athol FugardCabout the South African maximum security prison on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and many others were sentenced to life for speaking out
against Apartheid. Ever since the play was written in 1973, it has always been these two gentlemen who have performed it, at times resulting in their arrest and imprisonment. After three decades Kani and Ntshona have decided they have done the roles long enough and will allow a new generation of actors to do the play.
    Kani spoke with Our Time Press from his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he is director of the Market Theatre and chairman of South Africa=s National Arts Council. AActors have performed the show around the globe, but every time they perform it in South Africa, they are compared to Ntshona and myself. We are ready to pass the roles on, so the press can stop
comparing these young actors to us,@ Kani said.  
The play is a drama which looks at the hard lives of the prisoners and at them preparing to do the play Antigone,Ca classic production about resistence.  In addition to the drama on stage, there was an equal drama occurring behind-the-scenes, when the play was first performed in South
Africa and for many years following. AWe wanted to do a work that depicted the prison where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for life. It was a fitting tribute to him and the other men there. People were forbidden to talk about Robben Island. The government wanted us to forget Mandela. The play was a way of keeping his name alive and the names of the other prisoners, so that we would never forget about them. The script took 14 days to create and perform.
You couldn=t produce a text that could be used in a court of law against you.
We kept the story in our heads and improvised,@ Kani recalled.
    The play had its share of great success, and from 1973 to 75 Kani and Ntshona performed it in England, in the United States in Connecticut and eventually on Broadway, where Kani and Ntshona shared the first-ever dual Tony Award for acting. In 1976 they performed it in South Africa, only to be arrested and placed in solitary confinement for 15 days, until protest from
Broadway and Hollywood celebrities like Vanessa Redgrave and Sidney Poitier and massive demonstrations in New York, Paris and around the world, got them released.
    The script, according to Kani, is based on stories from people who had been on Robben Island. Kani=s own brother was there for five years. AIf you were really involved in the struggle (against Apartheid) you were underground in the community, in exile, dead or on Robben Island,@ Kani said proudly.
   While throughout the world performances of The Island were done in theaters, in its homeland, it could only be done for private audiences. AThe right of assemblage act forbid the gathering of two or three people under a roof. We would do the play for invited audiences, charge no admission and have no review. Many times the play was performed at Universities as study
material or in church halls. If the police came we could change the evening into a prayer meeting. It was wonderful,@ he said. AWe took the risk every night knowing we may not go home tonight, we could be arrested,@ added Kani.
    When Apartheid ended Nelson Mandela met Kani and said he wanted to see the play in 1995. AWinston and I put it together in three weeks and did it for Mandela, his entire cabinet and over 120 former Robben Island inmates. It took on another meaning that night. It was about the indestructibility of the human spirit. That night we experienced the longest standing ovation ever in my entire history as an actor,@ he recalled.
    In 1999 director Peter Brooks saw the production in South Africa and brought the actors to Paris to perform the show, but first it went through massive changes. AIt was the most challenging 12 days of our lives. He took the play apart and made us recreate it. He had us search into the emotional reasons why we put it together 26 years before. Now that South Africa was a
democracy, Antigone became the central issue of the play. It lifted the play from its confines in South Africa and it became a play speaking for anywhere people are denied the right of self-expression,@ Kani said.    Discussing the message of the play, Kani stated, Ayou can survive anything if you hold on to your dignity.@

    Kani and Ntshona have been performing the play for three decades, but their friendship goes back further than that. High school friends, they have known each other for 42 years. AWe share a chemistry, understanding and respect for each other,@ Kani said.
    Looking at The Island and other productions that Kani mounts as director of the Market Theater in Johannesburg, he sees how the themes changed since the ending of apartheid. AOur theater has always been relevant, concerning the issues of the day. It told stories of our people under apartheid, gender discrimination, and child abuse. Today, South Africa is an emerging new
nation, building a new people and society and that is the work emerging from young and established writers. The majority of the work talks about reconciliation and healing the nation,@ Kani said.
    The actor/director/playwright currently has a production playing in South Africa called Nothing But The Truth about reconciliation, which began performance in July 2002 and is currently touring South Africa.    Kani has been acting since 1965 and expressed its importance. AIt is the opportunity to communicate, be historian of our culture, continuing the oral
traditions of our heritage. It=s a  means to inform and educate our people,@ he said.
    In 2001 Joe Mellilo, executive producer from BAM invited Kani, Ntshona and Fugard to put on the production in 2003. Kani was thrilled by the invitation. To say to the Americans >Lest We Forget= If audiences can take that lesson our visit would be a success,@ Kani said.
    Kani states that audiences will laugh, shed tears and feel their spirits lifted by The Island. The play will only run for twelve performances from April 1-6, 8-11, 12-13. To purchase tickets call BAM ticket services at 718-636-4100.
There Is A Drama Behind The Drama

Join Balm In Gilead in U.S.
to Develop HIV Prevention, Service Programs for Mother Land
By Teresa Lyles Holmes
African faith leaders from five African countries came to the United States, last month, to join the New York-based non-governmental organization Balm in Gilead in declaring a war on AIDS in Africa.
This international mission to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the African Diaspora is currently being hosted by Balm in Gilead during a six-week Africa HIV/AIDS Faith Initiative Training Institute in New York City with more than 35 African Christian and Muslim leaders participating from Cote d= Ivoire, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.  The training is designed to build the capacity of the national governing organization of the Catholic, Protestant and Muslim communities within each country to develop effective HIV/AIDS prevention programs and services that will include the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS.  The training sessions, which commenced on March 10, will be completed on April 18, 2003. 
In May 2002,  Pernessa Seele, founder/CEO of The Balm In Gilead, and her delegation returned from a six week, five-country, work detail where African faith leaders signed official declarations vowing to stop the scourge of AIDS in their countries and to work in partnership with the US-based organization to gain the skills to mobilize and empower their countries= faith community to become an effective force in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
AThe Africa HIV/AIDS Training Institute is designed to train and empower these 35 African faith leaders to return to their nations and begin to create a social, political and cultural climate that will support the delivery of effective AIDS education and services that will stop 600 people becoming infected with the HIV virus every hour in sub-Sahara Africa.@ says Pernessa Seele.
Over the past year, The Balm In Gilead has developed a strong partnership with the highest ranking religious organizations, such as the Tanzania Catholic Conference, The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, The Heads of Christian Denomination of Zimbabwe to develop and support strategies that will provide a sustainable and systematic approach of addressing the challenges of the AIDS epidemic by implementing AIDS prevention and clinical services in churches and mosques in local towns and villages throughout the countries.
AThank you for coming to Africa to wake us up,@ said Dr. Adegbite Lateef Oladimeki, general secretary, Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Nigeria, in his response during the opening proceeding of the training institute in New York. AThe work that we will do over the next several weeks will make a great difference for many generations to come in Africa@. 
Organizations involved in the Balm In Gilead=s training include the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, The Black AIDS Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Dr. Fred Wabwore-Mangen, Director, Institute of Public Health, Makerere University, Uganda and Drs. Robert & Mindy Fullilove of Columbia University are among special presenters during evening forums when African American faith leaders join with their African colleagues to discuss and forge alliances in addressing HIV/AIDS in Black communities globally.  For more information on the Balm in Gilead, visit www.balmingilead.org.

      The View From China
      by Joshua Samuel Brown
In China, the War in Iraq is getting unprecedented media coverage. But are the Chinese watching the same war? While CNN and other western-based  media outlets put their own particular spin on the war in this, the  fourth day of the American invasion of Iraq, they generally agree that victory for America is at hand.
 On CCTV-9 (China Central Television), China=s major English news channel, the spin on what they call AThe War on Iraq@ is quite different. Indeed, if you believe Chinese news on this, the same fourth day of the same campaign, the Ainvaders@ may have bitten off more than they can chew. Juxtaposed with images of Iraqi soldiers picking through pieces of downed American jets, interviews with Chinese military  strategists are giving their own spin on why Iraq will be a far tougher nut to crack than Western viewers might think.
Zhang Tianping, a top Chinese military analyst, was somewhat dismissive of the American AShock and Awe@ strategy. AThe American ground warfare  is still being fought like the Second World War.@ He said ABut Iraq, having lost all of its advanced weaponry after the first Gulf War, has become quite adept at guerrilla tactics. This will allow Iraq to harass and stall U.S. troops while worldwide antiwar sentiment grows.@ The Chinese have a high regard for the use of guerrilla tactics against a better-equipped force – after all, without such victories the People=s  Republic of China might have been snuffed in the cradle.
Another military analyst, Zhang Zhaoxhong, was probably a bit too forthcoming to make American prime time about what he believes are the true objectives of Athe belligerent states.@ ATheir driving force is to control the oil of Iraq.@ When questioned about the American president=s personal motives in light of his varied perceived flip-flops on the matter, Mr. Zhang said that AOnly Mr. Bush himself knows what his objectives in this war are.@
While maintaining a certain professional neutrality, some Chinese broadcasters have let slip their own opinions on the war. One correspondent, in what might have been a telling slip, invented a new word to introduce what western journalists are calling simply a military action.
AThe US-led attacktion is entering it=s fourth day,@ she said. And unlike American broadcasts, reported from Aembedded@ journalists, Chinese broadcasts are anything but sanitized. While viewers in America  may have missed the video showing a three year old boy swaddled in dirty bandages crying in an Iraqi hospital after being caught in an American missile attack, tens of millions of CCTV International News viewers didn=t. It was replayed several times over an hour broadcast, along with the cries of the boy=s father screaming AAmerica, where is your humanity?@
As I write this, CCTV-1 (China=s main channel, broadcasting in Mandarin) is showing live feed from the outskirts of Baghdad of the Iraqi hunt for the downed U.S. pilots. If the American media is trying to get the world to buy into the image of Iraq as a helpless, near-decapitated nation, the Chinese media is going in the opposite direction, broadcasting press conference being given by Iraqi officials. A clearly relaxed Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf proved that rumors of the regime=s demise had been exaggerated by cheerfully stating in English for assembled media that AIt is the aggressors who are shocked and awed B to use their own language, which I would rather not.@
Chinese television is also giving major coverage to worldwide anti-war protests, including this tidbit not seen on CNN.com about AA demonstration outside of CNN headquarters in Atlanta, protesting the cable networks pro-war bias in their coverage of the war.@ The effects of these demonstrations on troop morale are likewise being discussed.
Tao Wenzhao, an International Affairs Expert, had this to say about what caused an American soldier to hurl three grenades into an officers tent in Kuwait. AClearly, with all of the protests going on around his own country, he must have begun doubting his role in the war, and his nerve must have cracked.@
And it isn=t just a government-approved spin on the story being consumed throughout China. Viewers and readers in China are enjoying access to the once-forbidden fruit of Western media. CNN broadcasts are being translated on state channels, and recently blocked Web sites like CNN.com and www.nytimes.com are now open for anyone with an Internet connection.
 For now, the government seems to be keeping all the pipes open, as if the powers that be know instinctively that any way its spun, pictures of American bombs falling and American soldiers marching in foreign lands drive home the image of America as an imperialistic aggressor in ways that Chairman Mao could only have dreamed of.
Find this article and more at: www.Antiwar.com.
      March 26, 2003